Author Archives: Andrew O'Brien

On the 31st March 2017, CFG hosted its regularly Gift Aid Conference which was attended by charities, tax specialists and HMRC. HMRC’s Charity Outreach Team, led by Andrew Kayley, spoke about the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme and Gift Aid and generously promised to respond to some questions raised in writing. Here are some of the queries and answers that were given by Andrew: Small Charitable Donations scheme (GASDS) & Refreshments A payment for refreshments after a church service, at a fundraising event or a payment made to have a car washed are not eligible small donations. However, when a charge is […]

Theresa May has called a General Election for the 8th June. NCVO has some good information for charities that are thinking about campaigning and I am sure that they will be providing more support to charities on how to work within the Lobbying Act. However, with only 51 days from now until the election, charities need to get their act together quickly if we are going to shape the agenda to ensure that we are best able to support our beneficiaries. Here are some thoughts on how we can do this. 1. We must link charities with the biggest challenges […]

Fundraising isn’t just about fundraisers. It is about the whole organisation. One of the lessons that the sector has had to learn is that good fundraising requires the whole organisation to understand why it is raising funds and how it is going to raise them.

The European Council has published its ‘draft’ negotiation position for its future relationship with the UK. The BBC has a good article which gives an overview of the document. But what the BBC won’t give you, is what this means for charities. Given the importance of Brexit for the future of the sector, here is a quick breakdown for what charities need to consider.

There has been a lot of coverage in the sector media of the voluminous House of Lords report on the future of the charity sector. It is well worth a read, and has a number of positive recommendations based on proposals put forward by CFG particularly encouraging grant making, encouraging commissioners to fund on the basis of full-cost recovery and recognising the potential of tax reform to support the charity sector. Lords have ‘grave concerns’ about charging for regulation But one of the strongest areas in the report are the ‘grave concerns’ that the Committee expressed about charging charities for […]

It is universally agreed that this has been a very spartan Budget for charities, with good news thin on the ground. My colleague Anjelica Finnegan has been putting together a live blog which goes through the spending announcements bit by bit – as well as expert corporate analysis. A few big measures may impact on the sector (for example, the £2bn cash injection into social care over three years) but overall there was little directly relevant for charities. However, as is frequently the case, it is not the headlines which will really shape the operating environment for charities but the […]

Theresa May has made ‘The Big Speech’ on Brexit today – although negotiation is a long process and the government’s position is likely to change and evolve over the next two years. Yet this is an important first step towards what the final deal may look like. But what does it mean for charities? Here is my analysis: Exiting Single Market helps charities on key financial policy issues… ‘Clean’ Brexit (i.e. exiting the Single Market) could impact on the economy and therefore on the conditions that the charity sector has to operate within. This could have damaging consequences for the […]

It’s January, so it is traditional for people to write articles and blog posts telling you what you have to look forward to in 2017. And CFG is no exception! 2017 is shaping up to be a very busy year, and charities will need to be prepared for a number of issues which could impact on their work. Here are my top five things to discuss internally and potentially at your next board meeting.

The Economic and Fiscal Outlook has been published by the Office for Budget Responsibility and this gives a picture of the future shape of the economy, this is important for charities, in some ways more important than the spending measures and tax changes announced by the Chancellor.

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Charity Finance Group blog

Here we talk about policy developments and implementation that affects the charity sector – the good, the bad and the ugly!
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